Only a Mother Could Love
by Hillside Dancing On
Summary: A short story about something that happened in my Albia. It's about an ettin mutant and the child she adopted as her own. R/R, no flames.


A/n: I got the idea of using "vur" from the BRILLIANT story, The Parting and the Reunion which are on another creature site. This story really happened. It just has a plot added to it.  
  
  
  
For such a good Ettin, Alice was born under tragic circumstances. The story of her and her son began even before Alice was born.  
  
  
  
One day, an old ettin hobbled through the swamp. He knew his time was short, so he lay down under the vines he loved and listened to the music of the swamplands. Then he closed his eyes for the last time. The hand found his body and noticed that it wasn't floating away. She got an idea. She quickly flew up to the gene splicer and prepared it. Then she placed the ettin's stiff body in a cage and left.  
  
She soon came flying up holding a large grendel. He was Steve, a smart creature of the volcano. The hand locked Steve in one of the cages. She flicked the switch and after a lot of noise making, the machine enveloped the two creatures in light. No one ever saw them again.  
  
The tube below creaked and spat out an orange egg. The creature that came out to greet the hand was...an ettin with a thick grendel tail. She was given the name "Alice" and blessed with great knowledge.  
  
  
  
Alice lived her life in the swamp alone. She liked to go into the volcano and study the minerals. One day she traveled further than ever before. She went up the elevator into a small cave. Then something made her stop. Her foot had bumped a brown egg. Alice bent down closer to inspect it. Much to Alice's surprise, it was moving! With a crack, out came a baby grendel. Alice had heard of them. She wanted to run, but something inside stopped her. The baby was looking at her with such caring eyes. He spoke one word, in a tiny voice only partially with a grendel's grunt.  
  
"Mommy"  
  
The little grendel hobbled over and wrapped his arms around Alice's leg. This creature had a tail just like his. And she was here when he came out of his egg! Yes, this furry white creature must be the one to care for him! Who else could she be?  
  
Alice cast all she had been taught about grendel's into the wind. She picked up the baby grendel and he snuggled into her warm, white fur.  
  
"Mommy," he said again.  
  
Alice held him close and headed back down to the lift. She thought of the perfect name as she did.   
  
Eddy.  
  
  
  
  
"Root," Alice held said while holding the potato up in front of Eddy.  
  
"Roth"  
  
"Root"  
  
"Root"  
  
Alice reward Eddy with a tickle. She held picked up a flower to teach him the word but he was already off playing with Pitz. Alice looked on lovingly at her child. He was a handful but she loved him anyway. For a long time, Alice and Eddy lived in the southern areas of Albia. And Eddy never suspected he was a "monster" until one day when he was in his early teens.  
  
  
  
That day, Eddy tore into the volcano. He looked crushed. Alice rushed over from where she'd been studying a snail and asked what was wrong.  
  
"Norn..." Eddy answered. Alice cocked her head. "Some weird things with big ears and long noses were playing there. I went over to them and they screamed and ran. All they said was 'run grendel' and then they were gone. Who's grendel? Why were they so afraid of me?"  
  
Alice drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She knew she'd have to tell Eddy this someday.  
  
"Eddy, you're a grendel. And norns are raised to be afraid of grendels. They think grendel's are diseased, violent, and thieving."  
  
"But I would never do that!" Eddy said with a shocked look.  
  
"I know you wouldn't. But years ago, in prehistoric Albia, the grendels were evil. They killed a lot of norns. To this day norns are taught by the hand to fear grendels," Alice explained. Eddy gave her a look that plainly asked "who's the hand?" "The hand is what she sounds like-a floating hand. She looks after the norns of Albia."  
  
"She sounds nice," Eddy commented. Alice turned so he could see her grendel tail.  
  
"Sometimes. But do you see my tail? An old ettin died in the swamp. The hand used a machine to combine his genes with a grendel's. The grendel died of course when he was spliced. I was created from that experiment. There are many names for the hand. The land norns know her as Vur Casey. The sea norns simply know her as Casey. We know her as the hand. She is part god and part mad scientist. I am not your true mother. I found you in a cave and love you just the same. I wanted to protect you from the same fate as that grendel."  
  
Eddy first looked shocked, then sad, then afraid. He and Alice embraced. They were still mother and son.  
  
  
  
  
  
Days went on and still Eddy and Alice lived together. Eddy grew into a powerful grendel who was even bigger then his mother. Strong muscles lay beneath his green skin. He was a great creature. And Alice grew old. She started walking stiffly and forgetting things often. Eddy was worried about her.   
  
  
  
Then one day, Alice lay down on the volcano's floor and raised her eyes to look at her son. He asked her what was wrong.  
  
"Just hold my paw...and don't let go," Alice said weakly. Eddy obeyed and finally Alice's life left her. Eddy knew. Tears rolled from his red eyes and sent steam up when they hit the hot coals below. A voice suddenly spoke from behind him.  
  
"She was a great ettin," said the hand. Eddy spun around and looked at her with shock. She floated in the air without falling and her voice rolled off of the volcano walls like water. And yet it didn't come from the hand. It was all around, even in the grendel's own soul. Eddy remembered what Alice had told him.   
  
"How would you know? You were never here!"  
  
"Yes, I was. I was invisible. I saw it all. I finally became visible to get Alice's body-"  
  
"You're not taking my mother!" Eddy snapped.  
  
"And to make peace with you," The hand finished. Even though she had no visible eyes she saw Eddy's stunned expression and went on. "I know you think I'm a mad scientist and maybe I am. But without that experiment involving the dead ettin and grendel, you would have lived the lonely life of a normal grendel. You are special, Eddy. You have lived with love. Thats a luxury for a lot of grendels." Eddy nodded. The hand floated closer to Alice as if ready to take it away. But Eddy stopped in the hand's path.  
  
"Join me with her," he said. The hand jerked back in shock.  
  
"But-"  
  
"My whole life revolved around her. Nobody else wanted me then and nobody does now. If my mother is gone forever and I'm destined to live alone in the volcano, what life is left for me?"  
  
The hand just floated, still shocked. Finally she bobbed up and down in a nod.  
  
  
***  
  
  
"Are you sure this is what you want, Eddy?" the hand asked. Eddy nodded. He stood on the platform, looked at his mother on the next one, and nodded. The hand had carried them both up to the gene splicer.  
  
"Turn it on," Eddy said with a tear rolling down his face. The hand floated over to the switch and turned it on before she could change her mind. the light engulfed Alice's body and Eddy. Neither felt anything and neither were ever seen again.  
  
  
An orange egg popped out down below. It cracked and a baby grendel with the arms and legs of an ettin came out. The hand tickled it and then took it away. It was going to get special care. Eddy and Alice were together again.  
  
  
  
THE END 


End file.
